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Lessons learnt from St Andrew the Great




I had the privilege of speaking at the 'Great Escapes' - the student mid-year getaway for St Andrew the Great ('StAG') in Cambridge - last week. Here's a few reminders and lessons learnt for us.


  1. Rigour in doing the basic things of church well. A big church with a strong history could rest on its laurels. But StAG continually work really hard at the basics. They are constantly reviewing everything - how Sunday meetings were run, how the preaching was - even when they ran games on the Escape: 'how could we do it better'! And they recognise the huge value of personal discipleship and make sure that they're really caring for every individual.

  2. Question times. There was a question box for students in response to the talks, and over a hundred questions were submitted! That wasn't just because of larger numbers; it was because they have an eagerness to learn God's Word and understand. Yes, they are Cambridge students and have active brains. But that ought not to be something limited to them. We need to work at encouraging each other to work hard at thinking, and be hungry to engage with the Bible.

  3. Urgency with patience. The work of the gospel generally feels slow - seeing people grow in their love for Christ, or seeing people become interested in the first place. But StAG are not growing weary of their work. It is possible to be patient, waiting for God to work in his way and his time, whilst maintaining an urgency in our mission. I wonder if we've become a little sluggish?

  4. Small 'events' to draw people in are a good thing. StAG are a big church, and therefore need to highly organise their programmes of events. We are small, and therefore more informal by nature. But we still need to organise ways in for people to hear the good news of Jesus. 300 years ago, churches could just keep preaching the gospel faithfully, and see the work of God in people's lives - because in those days, most people went to church to hear. (They had to by law!) Now people have no idea why they would even want to hear about Jesus. So we need to properly organise ways that people will gently get to know us, get to hear about Jesus, and be drawn in to the regular Sunday get-togethers where they can hear from God's Word. Check out the article on 'POSS', 27th September 2010.

The difference between regeneration and conversion

Regeneration: posh word for 'new birth' - as in what Jesus said:"No-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." (John 3:3) You can't see it happening, and it's entirely God's work.
Conversion: the human act of turning from sin to trusting in Jesus for forgiveness and new life - as in Mark 1:15: "Repent and believe the good news!"

These two things obviously go hand in hand. But as Graham Daniels pointed out last week when I was away with St Andrew the Great, Cambridge, knowing the difference affects how we tell people about Jesus.

We can bring about 'new birth' no more than we brought about our own natural conception. (Something we probably don't want to think about too much.) So here's the danger: it's possible for someone to say 'Yes' to the message about Jesus: 'Yes, I'll become a Christian!' Someone might do that for all sorts of reasons - the heat of the moment; an emotional response to a great preacher, etc. But it's possible to do that whilst not actually being regenerated.

How would you know if someone's 'conversion' was true or false? In the words of Bob Marley - time will tell. The bigger deal than praying a prayer of response is: are you still trusting Jesus in a year's time, or 10 years' time? That would be the proof that you're truly regenerated.

Put the other way round, there can be a big time delay between regeneration and conversion. The 'seed' might be sown when someone heard the gospel in their teens, but never make a proper response until 20 years later. You might be regenerated as a small child, but only express a response later on.

Therefore, the thing to avoid is always pressing for a response here and now in people. That's not the big deal - though it might stroke our egos for people to visibly respond to our message. In fact, that sort of thing could do real harm if people are not truly regenerated - which is God's work alone. We wouldn't want people thinking they're Christians when they're not, would we?

No - our work is to sow the seed of the Word - tell people about Jesus. And pray. Our job is simply to be like the midwife, facilitating, helping the process along. Not manipulating people towards a response. That's why our work as a church must be steady, low-key, watching for where people are responding, patiently encouraging people to respond - knowing when to 'push', and when to step back!

Understanding the Holy Spirit's work makes us real servants of the church

Thanks to the church family at Wellfield for freeing Mark for a week to come down to Norfolk. He's currently speaking at 2 back-to-back student "getaways". Students from St Andrew the Great in Cambridge have gathered to be fed and watered spiritually after a busy and draining term.

Speaking as a visitor, it is thoroughly encouraging to see about 80 students (and there's more coming on Monday!) who are so keen to learn how they can best serve God. There are those who are on the path to paid Christian ministry. There are those who want to go overseas to serve God. There are also those who are heading towards huge salaries that will be able to fund Christian workers as well as support themselves.

Mark spoke this evening and I am so helped by the things he said. This evening was "The Spirit and the Church". Many Bible passages were touched on. The one that is often misused (1 Corinthians 12-14) was perhaps the most helpful. He knocked on the head "I have a gift: I must use it" mentality. Instead, that passage shows us the diversity of the church, the gifts within it, and shows us how to serve others in any way we can. The more we are frustrated that our "gifts" are not being used, or the more we want to assert ourselves in this way, the more damaging it is for our churches.

The thrust of all his talks has been "other-person centredness", something which exists at the heart of God in the trinity, and therefore must be at the heart of our churches. If God can use me to take care of you, then I can trust him that you will take care of me. What a great logic! I found it incredibly powerful, and am (I trust not the only one) going to head back to my church with a fresh sense of belonging to the people there, and a burden to love and serve them in any way needed, even if it is not the way I feel I'm best suited to serve.

Thanks to God for his word to us, to Mark for his work in teaching it, and to our church for sending him down here for this week.

OUCH! Church planting hurts.

Wellfield church is a "plant". Not a dusty greeen thing in the corner of your living room, but a "spin off" (Quoting Vicky Fielding) of St Andrew's Leyland, the large parish church in the middle of the town. We have only been going for 3 and a half years (I know because I remember our little girl was just born when we started!).

We were "sent out" by St Andrew's church because they wanted us to be able to reach more people. And that's what we're doing. Because of the different style of our meetings, the smaller numbers, the different location, we are reaching people who would not feel at all at home in a church building. One of our recent visitors said "I feel really comfy here". The idea is that if we can reach the "unreached" of Leyland with the good news of Jesus, then we can reach anybody. Any of our friends or colleagues who might be interested in knowing about Jesus would find us an easy bunch to join.

That's what we're about, but some of us recently have felt the continued pain of being sent out from the big church. Many relationships that we treasured have lapsed a bit. That is the most painful thing, especially when we bump into old friends all the time, and find that we now know very little of each others' lives! But you know, that's the only way churches grow. As we get busy in life, producing children, committed at work, trying to invest in our marriages, we can only maintain a limited number of relationships at once.

So if we are to befriend new people, which for many of us is outside our comfort zone, it is at the expense of relationships that we hold dear. It would be so much easier to stick with what we know! But God's kingdom is never going to advance that way. We are so grateful for the leadership of St Andrew's who have liberated us from commitments at our old church in order that we might spend our time investing in new relationships and seeing our little congregation grow.

Let's keep on trusting God and going forward with him, in faith that he will do his work through us.

Catching a glimpse of heaven...

Just got back from our church weekend away – it was BRILLIANT! Although we were away for less than two full days, it was so refreshing, encouraging and enjoyable...
I think the best part was just being able to spend time with my church family. In the busyness of life when it's hard to grasp even a few hours together in an average week, it was such a treat to spend the best part of two days together; just getting to know each other better, having fun and really being a family. We shared meals, we served together by cooking & washing-up, we played games together and some of us went out for coffee or for a walk together. It was so lovely just to look around and see people chatting together, playing games, laughing together and to see people helping out with other people's children – spending time with them, entertaining them and looking after them.

One of the main things which struck me from the great teaching we had from John's gospel was the sheer importance of LOVE and UNITY within a church family and I felt a lot of that over the weekend – spending time with people who share your faith in Jesus and are also trying to live it out. It was so encouraging to be able to praise God together, to pray and discuss how God's challenging us together.


This weekend helped me to look forward to heaven! I was thinking about how brilliant the weekend was and how I'd LOVE it to be like that all the time. It is a bit of a disappointment to think about going back to work tomorrow, it was sad that the weekend had to come to an end! I can definitely see how Christians can be tempted to live in a Christian bubble – how much easier and comfortable that would be! BUT God hasn't called us to an easy and comfy life! He wants us to live in the wider world, to face up to how tough life can be in this fallen world, to reach people for Him and show others what He is like. Time together this weekend has really equipped me for this week to come.


It was like a little glimpse of heaven, where all of those who trust Jesus, all of God's people, will be there, truly united, praising God and enjoying His company and enjoying the company of other believers, and we'll never have that Monday morning feeling again! How truly amazing that will be!

Foundations for life, which won’t crumble?

You know when a line from a song strikes you? Well, I was struck by a line from a song a while ago. It was: “if all beneath me falls away, I know that you are God”. It got me thinking about what is beneath me, as my foundation? What do I subconsciously and consciously rest and rely on? Where’s my SECURITY? If certain things in my life did fall away, or disappear, what would make it hardest for me to say to God – you ARE God, you are still good, you are still in control? If certain things were taken away from me, would I find it hard to trust God’s goodness and the fact that He is in control? Would I find it hard not to doubt that God is God?

Society tells us that our foundation should be money, or self-belief, or family, or a job – and of course, these things aren’t intrinsically bad, but they can fall away. As a foundation to build our lives on, they can crumble and they can disappoint – and often they do; they are changeable. Sadly a job can be lost, a friend can disappoint, money can all too easily disappear, self-belief can be shattered when we mess up…and if that’s what we rely on, where does that leave us? If our security is in those things it can leave us feeling hopeless and crushed. I’m sure we’ve all felt some degree of the disappointment that comes from misplaced trust, which can leave us feeling empty…
The line of the song particularly struck me because at the time I didn’t have a job, income was low, the future was uncertain and it was hard. BUT it struck me that it was not a completely hopeless and crushing situation, because my foundation isn’t in a job, or in money; it is in God; He is so good, He is so loving and HE is the only who who doesn’t change or fall away. It’s all very well to know the theory, but it’s quite something else to cling onto God when times are tough and other things do fall away and I pray God will keep me saying that He is God, completely good and in control, even when those inevitably tough times come.

Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
my hope comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend on God;
he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Trust in him at all times, you people;
pour out your hearts to him,
for God is our refuge.’
Psalm 62:5-8
(By Natalie)

How much is your Bible worth?

This video [United Bible Societies, shot by Dianne Becker] has been doing the rounds - and I'm really pleased they've allowed us to put it here. It's about the Kimyal People in Indonesia receiving the New Testament in their own language at last. See what you think!